A HuffPo article citing the number of animals euthanized in South Florida animal shelters alone (100,000/year)

"Combined animals also euthanized in Broward County, Palm Beach County, and Monroe County, South Florida's animal shelters are killing over 100,000 animals yearly for the sole reason that there are simply too many to keep alive."

I think PETA = Whacko, so you shouldn't trust that statistic, either. But I still trust that they sincerely believe in animal welfare. (Personally on that welfare scale, I'm against fur, but for limited animal research.)

I'm all for laws prohibiting 'cruelty to animals' - but PETA is nucking futs! Their goal is the 'absolute liberty' of all animals - so, in essence, they are even against the keeping of pets. I think that is the secret of their success, though - fundamentalism of any kind is far easier to promote than any balanced view.

If you believe animals have rights just like people do, PETA is the group that practices this consistently. If you don't like what you are seeing out of them... check your premises. Maybe animals do not in fact have rights.

There are only two kinds of rights, legislated and imaginary (the latter includes so called innate or natural rights). Obviously dogs, cats, and lizards can't legislate for themselves, so if you want animals to have rights, pass the legislation.

But if you're going to support the idea that animals have rights, be consistent and ban owning pets, because on the view that animals have whatever rights you ascribe to humans, owning a pet makes you a slave owner.

I don't know about that. Just because you believe animals have "rights", that doesn't say explicitly which rights you think animals have, right?

When we legislate rights for humans, we don't just pass a law that says "All people have rights," we list them: Americans have the right to free speech, to freedom of religion, right to bear arms, right to a trial, etc. Some countries have the right to free speech, but less of a right to guns than in the U.S. Some countries have more rights as far as drugs than the U.S. And, rights only apply under certain circumstances; if you are a convicted criminal, some of your rights are taken away by the law.

PETA is ridiculous. But I'd always thought that you could argue that animals have some rights without putting them as equal to people. Am I just missing something here? I think it's mostly your terminology that confuses me.

Could be. I honestly haven't thought that much about where they come from. That sounds like something I don't believe, but I don't have any good reason to argue it at the moment. (I'd post more, but the library is closing and I don't have internet at home at the moment.)